


Lock the World Out

by 3amepiphany



Series: Total Eclipse of the Heart [6]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Vampires, Werewolves, cheese cubes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 19:13:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18708259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3amepiphany/pseuds/3amepiphany
Summary: The grizzled beast had come forward out of the shadows, slowly, tail hung low and his eyes seemingly locked onto Lilia the entire time. She decided to go from bending down to sitting on the grass, the skirt of her dress pooled around her.Yuri suddenly felt very scared for all three of them in this moment, watching her try to coax Otabek up to her.





	Lock the World Out

**Author's Note:**

> oh, heck.
> 
> For Samy.

Full and enjoying a lounge on the mausoleum floor that they’d broken into to dine in, Yuri sat there on the stone floor checking his smartphone, trying to figure out what to do for the rest of their night. If they went back to the estate now it’d be the best time to do so; Yuuri and Victor were across town and Lilia and Yakov were at an event. They’d all be back before sunrise. But did it matter? He wondered if Lilia already knew Otabek had been there. He wondered if Victor had said anything. Yuuri wouldn’t. Or at least, he hoped he wouldn’t. There wasn’t any reason to, at least none that he could think of, and their brief exchange before Yuri had wriggled out of the casket to put some clothing on and find a tide-over snack made it seem like Yuuri was more fascinated than disgusted or afraid. Which was better for them, honestly.

Mila thanked him for letting her know her cheese had been requisitioned - though she did make him promise to tell her why once she was home.

“What I want to know is what makes Mila’s situation so different. She’s been doing this for the better part of the time I’ve known her and that goes back well before I was even turned. She goes off on a holiday. Hangs out with the Crispinos - more werewolves - and comes back unscathed. Yakov tells her nothing. Lilia seems to support it. She teases her a lot, you know, Lilia. Even after Michele went batshit on their friend, she teases her about hanging out with them. Though I might wonder if that’s what has Victor worried. It’s just that Lilia doesn’t seem to care.” Yuri stopped talking to the werewolf he had been addressing. "What?" He asked instead.

Otabek had sat up and shuffled over, the nails of his claws dragging a bit against the stone audibly as he moved. His nose was wet and warm as he pressed it against Yuri’s cheek a few times, tentatively snuffling and snorting at him before licking at the vampire’s face, effectively shutting him up and also cleaning him.

Yuri realized then that he must be a mess; going back to the estate would have to happen, there was no question about that. And he just realized that all of Otabek's belongings were still there in Yuri's room. Including his clothes, and his own house keys.

"Fair. Let’s go."

They traveled back through the park the same way they had come, a girl and her dog in the dark of night. In that bright moonlight, it was easy to see that the front of Yuri's shirt and some of his hair was bloodied and stained dark, but thankfully they did not encounter any other late night partisans on their return run. Until they arrived back at the estate.

There in the hallway was Lilia, still in the lovely evening gown she had no undoubtedly worn out to the function that she and Yakov had plans to attend, a strapless black sheath sort of dress with a long skirt. They must have just gotten back home too, but as Yuri stood there, deciding if Otabek might understand that he needed to stay outside for just a little while longer, she greeted him. "Yurochka," she said, using the soft familiar name that Mila had coined for him the first day, "you've had a meal, good. I know you are capable of a clean feed, please mind your sire and do good by him, or I'll have to step in on behalf of him and his own, and neither of them will be pleased by it." She meant Victor and Yakov, and he shrugged.

"I didn't realize how hungry I was and got excited, but you're right."

"Have Victor and Yuuri told you that they are expecting guests soon?"

He couldn't immediately think of whom it might be, save for Giacometti, but she said guests, plural. "No, they had not."

"Well, they are. It'd be kind of you to straighten your room before their arrival tomorrow night. I came to find you just a few moments ago and was surprised to see it all turned inside out, with Potya curled up in your hamper." Lilia walked up to him, smiling gently, the rhinestone hair pins she had in to hold her bun high and the beaded fabric of her dress glimmering and glinting in the soft glow of the dim lights down the hallway as she moved the way she always did when she was in a dress - almost as if her legs weren’t moving at all, almost as if she was floating. She put a hand on his face, and he suddenly felt his stomach fold in on itself, cold, and his neck flare hot. Or maybe he imagined that, being undead, but he was unnerved for sure. "I understand you are going out more and more without guardianship, though the disheveled state I found your room in was worrisome. It would have been nice of you to tell me you had a guest over, as well."

Yuri winced. The motorcycle, maybe? No. She could probably simply smell him.

"Is he outside?" she asked demurely.

He nodded.

Fuck.

They went over to the bay door, where Otabek was sitting in the shadow of a bush. He may have been a giant wolf but the sad confusion on his face was clear. Why wasn’t he let back in the house? Was Yuri just gathering his belongings so they could go back to his place? 

He wasn’t, at least not yet, and Yuri wasn’t sure what to say as Lilia stepped out into the yard behind him.

Otabek, for lack of any other capable expression, tried to sink further into the bush.

Yuri had one last cheese cube, and he gave it to Lilia. She looked down at it in her hand, confused momentarily, but then she must have figured it was no different than offering Poyta whipped cream or bits of fish - which Yuri knew she did as often as possible. She doted on his cat. Would she dote on his new companion too? He had so many thoughts racing through his head at the moment: wondering where Yakov was, wondering what Victor would think. Wondering if maybe he could get away with this because of Mila. Worried about Georgi, who had been out and away from the estate for a good few weeks on personal business he did not want to share with anyone that wasn’t Yakov or Lilia. What would he make of this? How would he react? Wondering of course if Lilia was assessing the danger here, sizing Otabek up and maybe even using this as an excuse to hasten a separation from the clutch for Yuri. Maybe she even meant to put an end to this here and now. He hid himself behind his loose, stained hair, and folded his arms across his chest. Whatever happened, he was definitely sure he wouldn’t be able to stop it. She was the matron of this clan, this weird, piecemeal clan of theirs. Even if he answered to Victor and Yuuri first, there was still Yakov, and above all, Lilia.

Maybe that’s what had been bothering him. Always having to answer to other people. Were werewolves the same way? It didn’t seem like it, if both Leo and Otabek were able to leave and do their own thing. If Mila’s little pack acted as a collective instead of a hierarchy.

If Otabek survived this meeting, he knew he had to ask.

The grizzled beast had come forward out of the shadows, slowly, tail hung low and his eyes seemingly locked onto Lilia the entire time. She decided to go from bending down to sitting on the grass, the skirt of her dress pooled around her.

Yuri suddenly felt very scared for all three of them in this moment, watching her try to coax Otabek up to her.

The little cheese cube on her outstretched hand disappeared as Otabek took one big sniff, bared his monstrous teeth and plucked it from her palm. He sat back as he licked his muzzle, still sort of hunkered carefully out of reach.

“He’s very polite,” she said.

Yuri agreed, though he also remembered how Otabek had manhandled him on their first close meeting. To Otabek’s credit Yuri was also moving in for a meal, though, and he mentally kicked himself for contextualizing that wrongly. He watched as Lilia put both hands out, palms open, hoping Otabek would close the space between them again. For pets, he thought, and had to stifle a laugh.

She made a kissy sound.

This was too much. He wondered if Otabek found this demeaning. But after a little more hesitation the werewolf stepped forward, and let her pet him. She cooed softly, and to Yuri’s absolute surprise said, “I haven’t actually pet one in several hundred years.”

He walked up to them with an apology. “This is Otabek. Otabek, this is Lilia Baranovskaya.”

“Does Otabek have a last name?”

“...I actually haven’t asked.”

“Yurochka,” she frowned, rubbing at the werewolf’s ears.

“We’ve not known each other very long,” he said, flustered.

“Intimacy is a little different from an acquaintanceship nowadays, I suppose,” she said, and he muttered some curses under his breath and stalked away a few steps, frustrated by it. He almost wanted to tell her, “sure, yes, back when there were one hundred people to a major city.” But he bit his tongue, and just let her have this quip. “What do you plan to do, Yuri?”

He rolled that question around some, unsure of what she was doing here, now, and back to worrying about what she was going to do, next. Had she ever asked this of the others? Was this his moment to be queried as such? Did it even matter at all to her in the long run, really - what with Victor already siring and Mila running off, and who knows how many others of the Clan Baranovskaya there had been to this point and where they were now, and what they were doing. “What do you mean?”

“You can’t lock the world out.”

“I can’t lock my bedroom door, you mean. I mean, I can, it just doesn’t matter, I guess.”

“Widen your scope, boy. Is this serious? Is this what you want to move forward with? There will always be negative connotations, even in times of peace. What alliance are you advancing upon here? Do either of you know? Do you care to know?”

“I’m not sure. He is mine, though. I think I am his. He’s given me a name no one else uses,” Yuri said, knowing she wasn’t being cryptic so much as he was just lost and uneducated about what she was speaking of. He’d heard discussions about it from her and Yakov, but never anything at length, and Georgi was only full of terrible tales; some true, some untrue. Otabek pulled back a bit, shaking himself out and sneezing. He padded over to Yuri, tail wagging, and shoved his muzzle up under Yuri’s arm, causing him to unfold them, and bury his fingers in the coarse fur of the werewolf’s neck. Otabek leaned on him again, and he struggled to stay upright this time. Yuri looked at Lilia, who smiled at the both of them in a graceful, benevolent manner.

At least, he hoped that was how he was supposed to be reading that.

Not long after, and back in the lazy, unbloodied oversize t-shirt and sweatpants that he’d changed out of before leaving the estate, he did his best to get his room into some semblance of order while stepping around both Potya and Otabek as they got underfoot, both still slightly wary and curious of one another but also eager to help him with whatever he was trying to do. Of course, they couldn’t, being animals, so as soon as he had at least the casket back upright, and the loose light strings, clothing and fallen books and magazines up off of the floor, and the pile of pillows re-piled into a comfortable nest, he collapsed dramatically.

Potya clamored on top of him, purring loudly, and pawing at his shirt - seconds before Otabek tried to do the same thing, whining a little. They settled in quickly, though, Potya choosing to sort of pour herself into the little space at his shoulder and neck, curling up over his head, and Otabek laying half on and half off of him as if he were a pillow himself. Yuri put a hand up, and Otabek nuzzled his muzzle right into it. His thumb and forefinger made a circle just big enough to fit over the wolf’s big, black nose. He tilted his head forward just enough to plant a kiss there without disturbing the cat’s position, as she was usually very fussy at even the smallest of movements from Yuri once she was comfortable.

“I’m not looking forward to having the deeper conversations about your kind, with mine,” Yuri told the wolf, and he pet at him idly. Otabek’s eyes seemed to say the same.


End file.
